On paper, the Patriots essentially took care of their three biggest areas of need during the first two days of the 2024 NFL draft, although there are asterisks next to two of those boxes.
No. 1 – Future franchise quarterback?
Check. Taking Drake Maye with the third overall pick potentially puts them in very good stead when it comes to the most important position on the field. The former UNC quarterback needs some work, but has the tools and traits to be something special down the road.
And given all the elite quarterbacks in the division and conference, the Patriots really needed someone either in that stratosphere, or close to it. While it’s not a given, at least Maye has a chance to be a star. No asterisk needed.
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No. 2 – An explosive No. 1 receiver opponents fear?
*Check. Eliot Wolf & Co. landed the receiver. And while there’s a lot to like about Washington’s Ja’Lynn Polk, who was taken by the Patriots in the second round, he’s not considered a No. 1. He doesn’t have that game-breaking type of talent or speed to be a top gun. Hence, the asterisk.
But that doesn’t mean he’s a bad pick. That doesn’t mean he won’t upgrade the receiver room. He’ll certainly give it a boost. Wolf sees Polk as a good fit for Alex Van Pelt’s offense.
“He’s a versatile, do-everything-type of guy,” Wolf said.
With Polk’s makeup, toughness, ability to pull in contested balls, and versatility to play inside or outside, Polk could be a very good No. 2 receiver, staple of the offense and security blanket for Maye for many years to come. And that’s all good.
Just don’t pencil him in as a game-changer opposing teams lose sleep over trying to defend. Because that’s truly what the Patriots need.
No. 3 – A better than competent starting left tackle?
*Check. Caedan Wallace, who was taken in the third round (68th overall) would have aced the test if the Patriots needed a right tackle. That’s been his primary position. While both Wolf and Wallace indicated flipping over to the left side shouldn’t be a problem, it might have been a little more comforting taking a player whose natural position was on the quarterback’s blindside.
The Patriots certainly could have moved up the board to secure an actual left tackle, but opted to stay put, watching a number of talented left tackles go off the board. BYU’s Kingsley Suamataia, who visited the Patriots in Foxborough, went five picks before to Kansas City.
Wolf & Co. basically took their favorite right tackle, and are banking on it working out with Wallace on the left side.
Of course, in the cases of Polk and Wallace, de facto GM Wolf didn’t seem too stressed about how everything shook out on Day 2.
“It fell really nicely for us,” Wolf said. “Polk was a guy we had targeted, Wallace was a guy we targeted … there was some exploratory conversations about possibly moving back from 68, and then, it was kind of like, well why? This is the guy we had wanted all along. Sometimes it doesn’t fall for you, but it fell pretty nicely for us today.”
While he did move down a few spots in the second, also gaining a fourth and surrendering a fifth in the process, Wolf pretty much played it safe.
He didn’t swing for the fences. He was content just to get on base as opposed to aggressively pursuing something better when it came to both receiver and tackle.
That’s kind of how it went with Maye as well on Day 1. But the difference was, they didn’t surrender the No. 3 pick and possibility of having Maye reach his gaudy ceiling. They resisted the temptation to trade down, and settle for a quarterback whose ceiling didn’t come close.
In short, the Patriots did good – not great – collectively in the first three rounds.
Now, compared with last year’s draft, Wolf didn’t take a page out of Bill Belichick’s play book. Wolf attacked his greatest areas of need right out of the gate, as opposed to ignoring those, and fortifying his strength.
Last year, Belichick took defensive players with his first three picks – even though the same holes existed at receiver and left tackle.
To be fair, Belichick looks like he nailed it with two of those players, Christian Gonzalez and Keion White, while school’s out on the third, Marte Mapu.
Unlike 2023, however, Wolf can’t afford to miss on the offensive side of the ball, where the Patriots are severely lacking.
He certainly checked off the boxes with Maye, Polk and Wallace.
And while treading water on Day 2 wasn’t necessarily a bad course to take, the hope was for a little more than that.
